If you have never been to a BarCamp or other "un-conference", you should expect the following format. At the beginning of the first day, we will gather and talk about what interests us, and gauge how much interest there is in various topics. You may have come with an idea of what you want to talk about, or perhaps you didn't. Either way, be open - you might consider adjusting your plans depending on the mood and interest.

There will be a large white board showing the available time slots and if you want to give a talk, just write its title in one of the time slots and interested people will show up. This is something that will evolve through the conference in response to

There has been talk of "confirmed speakers" and "reserved space": rest assured, if you're booking your travel on the basis of a particular talk/presentation/workshop, you will be able to give it. However a BarCamp does not have keynote speakers - everyone has equal opportunity to speak. There will be at least 2 or 3 rooms available, so there will generally be a choice.

Information for presenters[edit | edit source]

As you consider presentation topics, remember that OSNCamp (aka OSNCon) is aimed at making progress, identifying key initiatives and challenges, and building new relationships to continue fostering positive change in support of Open Sustainability. For more details, check out our page with information for presenters

Planned presentations[edit | edit source]

We're pretty sure these are going to happen, in something like this form:

  • Open Sustainability Network - what, who, why.
  • Nuclear Issues and the Environment - how it all comes back to sustainability. Presented by Janine Carmona from Tri-Valley CAREs in Livermore.
  • Library Building in Nicaragua - A presentation by BRIDGE Nicaragua on plans to build a library in Morrito_Nicaragua
  • Free content and saving the world - a presentation by Chriswaterguy
  • Open Source Ecology, Global Swadeshi and the Living Co-Laboratory - a presentation by Richard Schulte of OSE Mid-Missouri and Michael Koch of OSE Oregon/Willamette Valley.
  • Community Assessment of Renewable Energy and Sustainability (CARES) - a presentation by Ryan Shelby of the University of California, Berkeley
  • William George Paul, Publisher / Owner: PlanetShifter.com and the companion eMagazine: GreenCatcherUnion.com.

We want creative green people from across the planet to share their work, offer critique and form new bonds and enterprises from the four disciplines or (member groups).

Suggestions for presentations and activities[edit | edit source]

These are relevant topics where no one has specifically said they will speak on them. We can finalize this on the day, but some forethought would be helpful...:

  • Open Sustainability Network/Governance Mission/Vision? Officers? Commitments? Structure? Plans for next time? CurtB or panel.
  • Operating MediaWiki - Lonny?
  • Openness and Ownership - Building a Collaborative Community. Panel discussion with one or two people from Appropedia, maybe wikiHow... plus another NGO (like AIDG) with a strong volunteer base.
  • Why sustainability matters for reducing poverty. Why reducing poverty matters for sustainability. - Joshua? Lonny? Joint presentation? (I'd be up for a joint presentation or panel - Chriswaterguy 02:13, 4 August 2008 (PDT))
  • Open Access - why it matters, how it differs from free content. - IJSLE people? (note Workshop #3: Online Publications)
  • OLPC content jam - work on developing content bundles (and we can talk about activity bundles - separate workshop if there's a critical mass of people.) Appropedia's OLPC bundle is one example, and that's one place for developing appropriate content intended for the OLPC.
  • Intellectual property and openness - profit and sharing knowledge. - Joel?
  • Open hardware - OSE folks? Panel/joint presentation with Joel? And/or video presentation from Vinay?
  • Open Sustainability Network/Constituencies Who are the players in OSN, and how do their views differ? CurtB Rachelmmurray (interested in helping with this)

William George Paul, Publisher / Owner: PlanetShifter.com and the companion eMagazine: GreenCatcherUnion.com. We want creative green people from across the planet to share their work, offer critique and form new bonds and enterprises from the four disciplines: musicians, artists, writers and inventors.

To William: are you proposing to attend and present on this topic? If not, then this information should be on a different page. You could create an article about your Organization(s), and tag as such.

Note: it would be good to talk about degrees of openness - from closed, through open access to free content. But we don't want to have too many talks on related areas, so it should perhaps be integrated somehow, or made into part 2 of a talk.


  • Card sorting workshop - getting people from the target audience to arrange a set of cards (yes, the physical objects) with topics etc, how they think the material fits together logically. See

Appropedia:Information architecture #Other ideas. (I'm happy to help run this --Chriswaterguy 02:13, 4 August 2008 (PDT))

Other talks:

Length of presentations[edit | edit source]

At BarCampSydney2008, it was felt that the scheme of 20 min per talk on Saturday, and 30 min per talk on Sunday, worked well.

Double blocks are possible, but these should be used sparingly. If it's possible to do it in a shorter slot that's better, and a breakout can follow if people want to continue. (Or schedule it before lunch or dinner).

20 minutes is more than enough time to be talked AT. However, for working together and real discussion, 20 minutes is way too short. 30 minutes minimum, and 45 is better. NurtureGirl 16:52, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

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